When All The Flowers are Occupied
by Luna Tiger
Summary: Short oneshots, stories in themselves, about anything and all. Do check if there are warnings. Stardroids, Blues, X, Robot Masters, and now Blues with Kalinka.
1. Table of Contents

Drabble Summaries: 

**Title**: "Crash Down"  
**Characters**: Rock, Stardroids, OC (Lunesis)  
**Rating**: PG  
**Warnings**: none

**Title**: "Four's an Extension of Three"  
**Characters**: Blues, Tango  
**Rating**: PG-13  
**Warnings**: one-sided Blues/Rock shounen-ai, Blues' POV

**Title**: "I'm On Your Deathlist"  
**Characters**: ...  
**Rating**: PG  
**Warnings**: none

**Title**: "Stray Cat"  
**Characters**: X, Zero  
**Rating**: PG  
**Warnings**: none, drabble  
**Diction**: Sometimes, you need to try.

**Title**: "A Little Bit of Happiness"  
**Characters**: Elecman+Metalman, Blues  
**Rating**: PG-13  
**Warnings**: Squint or blink; either you see a relationship between the two or something platonic (the rating's for language). Probably platonic, I'd say. I was never that good at being subtle. This was originally written for NK.

**Title**: "Bless me, Brother, for I have Sinned..."  
**Characters**: Blues, Wily  
**Rating**: PG-13  
**Warnings**: Just for language and death. Nothing you haven't heard before.

**Title**: "Mixing Nationalities"  
**Characters**: Blues, Kalinka (Cossack, Rock, Roll)  
**Rating**: G  
**Notes**: My inner sap speaks. It's going back in its cage when I'm done. Written late for Valentine's and early for White Day (and Men's Day too, I suppose). I've effectively done my quota for all three, even though I don't celebrate two of them.


	2. Crash Down

**Title**: Crash Down  
**Characters**: Rock, Stardroids, OC (Lunesis)  
**Rating**: PG  
**Warnings**: none

-8-8-8-8-8-

The eerie howl of the three Dark Moon golems sent shivers down Rock's back, as they fell back into motionless stances around him, effectively cornering; despite the large gaps between each Dark Moon. But those gaps were soon filled with the eight original forms of the Stardroids, all eyes glowing with an evil red light.

_Why? They've been inactive for six years!_

The appearance of Terra, strolling leisurely from between the legs of one Dark Moon was unsurprising; the emergence of the newest member, Lunesis, in the same matter made his skin creep, because if there was a partner for all three Dark Moon, then only one had the right to be standing beneath the third.

_Sunstar._

The ultimate weapon, far more powerful than Gamma or any other cockeninny plan Wily had devised. He looked no different from when they first met, and he'd thought it'd be the _last_ time they meet. But either he had spare bodies, or that vanishing act was spent hunting him down and putting him back together.

"Why are you doing this, Terra?" he shouted towards their leader, if only to push aside Sunstar's presence. "I thought--"

"What you _thought_," stated Terra, cutting Rock off, "is based on facts of the past. This is the present, and you will treat this encounter as though what has already transpired never occurred. If you do not, your foolish sentimentality will get you killed."

A bucket of arctic water ran down his spine; Terra's voice was so cold and lifeless. Nothing like he remembered. "Tell me why!" he pleaded. "You serve Wily only to not care of his welfare, and you bound with _us_. Why're you changing sides again?"

_I thought we were friends..._

It was an utter shock to here Terra burst out into peals of malicious laughter; even Lunesis' chuckling was dark, and the lack of response from the rest of the Stardroids gave Rock a very impression of the perfect horror film. The bioroid, however, forced his back to straighten... He couldn't show his fear. He wasn't afraid of the curve balls thrown to him, and he wouldn't be afraid of _this_.

_But it's getting pretty darn close._

"Who-- Who ever said we were on your side to begin with!" Terra was speaking around the last little bouts of boyish giggles. "Stupid dolt."

"Then who _are_ you with?"

"The Master."

When Sunstar spoke up, he could hear the supreme power in the title, as Sunstar voiced it with his loyal, laxed drawl. But even with that...sorta cleared up, it didn't explain crud. "You're still working with Wily?"

"No no, dear boy," purred Lunesis, slowly crossing the distance between himself and Rock. "Wily was an old fool, an inferior being who simply supplied us everything we needed: weapons, bodies, global knowledge and history. He did it so _willingly_, too. So desperate to take advantage of his new toys, he provided us with our ultimatum to stick around."

The silver-haired robot was too close now, knowingly invading Rock's personal space and violating it even further when he cupped the boy's cheek, leaning down until they were nearly nose to nose. "Did you know...that it was the confrontation of Rockman who saved this planet from being eradicated from the lower bowels of the universe?" As an afterthought, he added, "No, of course you don't."

A whirring sound piqued at Lunesis' ears, but he wasn't too upset to find a charged buster cannon pushed securely against his gut, or the look of betrayal and disgust on Rock's face.

"Get. Away. From me."

None too subtly, Lunesis licked his lips and took a step backwards. "We don't care if you can pull the trigger on your weapon or not, because you've seen its ineffectiveness of it against us. But with its usefulness having expired _years_ ago, we're also sure you haven't the mega-arm equipped."

"What are you?" he hissed, swallowing at a lump.

"So _now_ he wants to know!" Terra pipped, a Cheshire grin locked in place. "You've have fourteen years to ask us those three little words, and only now do you get it! It's bloody hysterical."

Lunesis clucked his tongue expectantly. "It's no big secret, sweetheart. We originate from a planet about eighty-three lightyears from here. And while I'm at it, we might as well tell you what are plan is."

"This is the part where you're supposed to take notes," Terra commented. "Never know when the 'brave, earthly hero' might have to one-up us."

"Fifteen years ago, we were sent by the Master to scout new systems for possible intelligent lifeforms that It could incorporate into Its operations. If usable life was found, we were to collect...samples, if you will, and return them to zero-point. If they weren't worth the evolutionary time, the planet was to be detonated. If they showed potential, we were to leave and then come back once the proper amount of time elapsed.

"And while humans are worse than the slime on our shoes, _you_...and all your little friends are just what the Master desires."

More chills, more goosebumps. This wasn't a horror movie anymore, it also qualified as a B-rate sci-fi. But while the subtext was cheesy, the threat was real. And Rock's heart sank.

_I have to fight again._


	3. Four's an Extension of Three

**Title**: Four's an Extension of Three  
**Characters**: Blues, Tango  
**Rating**: PG-13  
**Warnings**: one-sided Blues/Rock shounen-ai, Blues' POV 

-8-8-8-8-8-

I could have him, if I wanted. 

He smiles like there is trust to be found in every crevice, and it dances to a naive rhythm. I've seen him be himself, and truly, I have been taken away every time, left breathless when he's simply being a boy. Not a fighter, a warrior, a hero. A machine. He would be himself, and leave me stunned where I watched him, trapped in the bliss offered for just being alive.

The machinations in my chest emulate constriction, as though my heart tightened when I witness his most vulnerable moments. When he sleeps, when his attention is stolen by a childish pleasure, when he's not being reminded that Wily still looms over his head like a bad cloud.

I've done my best to keep that cloud at bay, to not come so close to him, to harm him irrefutably. I protect him to my limit, and it hasn't been enough.

Yet he still looks at me with those eyes, conveying that he has faith in me, that he would put his life in my hands without hesitation, if I asked him to. Somewhere down the line, I must've proven myself to be capable of being so trusted. Which is horrible.

Because even I can't trust myself. I can't be trusted with him when no one else is present, in those little unguarded moments. My hands linger on him too much, when he's asleep in my lap, or when he's so captivated with some new enchanting object, that he doesn't notice I'm too close. Intimately closer than proper.

Which is how I know...I could have him. Mark him, make him mine completely. He trusts me, loves me like a boy should love his older brother, who caused him no harm, his own personal hero. And if I claimed him, even I'm not sure if I'd still be on that pedestal when it was over.

A gamble I cannot ever risk. He's too important to become awkward with. So I'm left with nothing but an uneasy mind over the entire ordeal, and an itch left unscratched. It's better that way. ...At least, until he's no longer needed.

Or no longer exists. I have no illusions about anyone's survival, not even my own.

- c - u - t -

"_You're brooding._"

My lips twitched in irritation. "What do you know about 'brooding'?"

"_That you're in the classic 'up a tree, staring into distance, hunched over, half hidden face by one-knee-and-one-arm' brooding position. Classic in your world, anyway._"

It was a mistake to ever make that cat a voice. "That doesn't answer my question."

Tango tipped his head to the side and gazed up at me, his body tucked in tightly against himself, mimicking an innocently curious feline. As if I'd fall for his cute-angel routine. "_It does too. I'm telling you what I know by explaining that you give away all the answers by posture._"

"That explains shit."

"_And every answer you return gives away that you're not fully aware of what I'm implying, suggesting that you're not paying attention, hence lost in thought, hence recollection, hence.../brooding/ ...I suggest getting yourself back together, because you plus distraction equals--_"

I snap. "Tango!" The lime-green mecha-unit flinched, freezing. I would feel bad later, about yelling at him, but there wouldn't be any apologies. He was talking. His own fault. Besides, he took it well enough after the initial shock.

"_Well!_" He turned around and let his tail swoosh erect, lifted his nose and hmphing. Indignation, an act played well. "_You selfish son of a bitch. Don't even realize you've been falling out of game for months now. Puh, you'll be sorry later that you didn't listen to the kitty, when you find yourself being crushed to death by a Robot Master!_"

With that and a dainty stride, Tango trotted down our shared branch and lept for a neighboring one, disappearing into its leaves.

I snorted, and began regretting my choice to accept Tango as a helper. ...Then again, it was Rock who offered him, holding him in a manner that screamed 'inexperienced cat owner'. Looked up at me, smiled, and said, "Hey...do you want Tango? I know you're pro'ly busy and all, with the moving around and constantly vanishing, but a little company couldn't hurt, right?"

Maybe if it was Roll, I could've declined; felt like a jerk later on, but still, I'd decline. Were it Dr. Light, there was no question of refusal; I did not accept hand-outs by any old men who thought they knew better.

But it was Rock. And even thought it /should've/ been the other way around, I couldn't refuse any offer he made. When I had to, my heart broke twice. Once for saying, 'no', and the other just watching his disappointment surface...

My eye ticked and I backed off, scowling. I wasn't confused about what all this was leading to; call it arrogance or any other silly personality trait, but I wasn't deluded into thinking all I felt was a yearning lust for him. On so many levels, I could pinpoint every single type of love I had for him, something a flesh creature could never achieve.

It's just the curse of what I was made to be. A bioroid, a machine capable of sporadic judgment according to its own emotional database and past experiences. Basically a scrap-heap that could learn, yet remained tethered to Man's laws.

Good thing 'a robot shall not think wicked, perverted thoughts of members on its model-line' wasn't one of them. Going back to the love/lust issue, that would've been one bitch of a rule. I'd have to break it.

What's one more broken law, anyway? Granted, none of the ones I broke fell under the 'a robot will not blah blah fucking blah', but I'm curious. I have no master, I obey no one; even with a prescribed program, could I go out of my way to take the life of a human and break one of the three 'Golden Commandments'? I'd love to test that.

But if Rock found out...

My fist slammed into the trunk of the tree with such force, shaking the stury giant to its roots and all but pulverizing the protective bark. Birds shrilled and flew away, leaves dead from last season came plummeting toward the ground, and a pair of squirrels race for a new place to play.

Rock was my ultimatum, Rock was -everything-. Not just to myself, either. His importance was unfathomable, to the future and survival of two races. And he'd...he'd...It would make him cry, if such events occurred. In conclusion, with my new knowledge that I was exempt from the rules, I'd proceed to break the third. Because I made him cry.

I don't know what I'm a slave to more: Rock's smile, my own damn goals, or letting the dangling fruit lead me astray from time to time.

I like it when he smiles.  
My mission is more important than intangible luxuries.  
And I'd like nothing more than to screw both and take what I long for.

...It's an ugly situation, but no one ever said being conscious of reason was easy.

- c - u - t -

"Maaao. _Hey Blues?_"

My processor must be slow; it took too long to answer him. "What is it?"

"_Why are we doing this?_"

I've got my finger resting on the 'u' button, a micro away from pushing it into the keyboard. His question is valid, and one asked frequently, when something abstract or suspicious happens. My answer is always the same. "We've got the advantage of being untraced and undetectable. Why shouldn't a little espionage be done with that cover?"

He stands on his hind legs, to rest his front paws and chin on my thigh. It's sometimes ease to admire how truly domesticated he is, in the sense that he's essentially a deadly weapon. "_But_ why_? I don't see any reason you'd risk your neck to be a good guy. You have what any robot would__ dream _of, a life that entails you to be your own master! ...Why slave yourself when there's a world of freedom and opportunity waiting to be taken?"

A 'u' hasn't appeared on the screen yet, and I realized there wouldn't be for a while yet. I removed my hand from the keyboard, and dropped it gently to the top of Tango's head. I didn't have to scratch him behind the ears or anything; the heat generated from the touch was soothing enough to him, as he was soon purring softly under my palm.

Tango wanted my totem of motivation, what compelled me to be what and who I am. The answer was simple; the response was complex. In the end, I settled on four, vague words: "Because I love him."


	4. I'm On Your Deathlist

**Title**: I'm On Your Deathlist  
**Characters**: ...  
**Rating**: PG  
**Warnings**: none

-8-8-8-8-8-

_"...You don't understand the dire consequences you're facing right now. I'm disappointed in you."_

"But...but...Oniisama_...!"_

"I'm asking you, Rock! It's a yes or no question. **Now answer it**!"

"I can't! Don't make me...Please don't make me."

"Answer me! Would you do it? Could you!"

"Stop it, stop it please! I don't want to--"

"You will. Now let me ask you again: Would you kill me, if it meant saving the world?"

"Please...please...I-- I can't."

"**Tell me**!"

"No! No, I won't. I wouldn't-- couldn't do it! Not you. ...You're my brother."

"...I was wrong about you. A hero, one who **wants** to protect himself to the price of death to ensure his duty as a shield, knows the difference between right and wrong. But he also knows when the wrong is also the right. I will not accept you, unless you can learn that lesson. Even if it means forcing you to make the choice: my life...

"...or yours."


	5. Stray Cat

**Title**: Stray Cat  
**Characters**: X, Zero  
**Rating**: PG  
**Warnings**: none, drabble  
**Diction**: Sometimes, you need to try. 

-8-8-8-8-8-

Watching the last machine fall was a relief as much as it was a brand new burden. Just more destruction toward the name of peace, a short respite before more mounted to replace what had fallen in battle. Mass produced weapons radio controlled, never ending, but sometimes it did. For the moment.

X's whole body sagged. For a being lacking muscles, his body was insisting upon his fatigue. The damaged leg certainly played a part in it. Awful. The medical staff were gonna scold him for it, but that was the price of war.

He'd only just started limping through the ruin when a particular sound softly touched his audio, a faint mewling. Rationality prepared him for a not-complete-destroyed air cannon chirping to finish its prerogative. Buster drawn and ready to shoot, X peered inside the trashcan it was coming from.

It certainly wasn't an air cannon.

Robotic pets were just as common as organic ones. Finding a feline model laying in the trash, with a similar leg injury and a third of its body frame blown off, X felt the warrior vanish and the humane spirit return, already feeling sorry for it.

Its cries were weak and its tail twitching fluidly at the tip. Nothing else moved. The extent of damage led him to believe it had been caught up in the earlier fight, but the thought of a human tossing it away also crossed his mind, despite the lack of evidence to prove that conclusion. Other thoughts followed.

Who cared that it was 'just a machine' made for humans, like an appliance. Even machines with the right intentions had every right to organic treatments. Heal the wounded, feed the hungry, love the ones close.

With this on his mind, X already found himself leaning inside to collect the cat in his arms, cradling it in a way that hopefully lessened its pain. Having emerged into the light however, X realized something odd.

Normally, humans demanded robots be as similar to what they were copying as possible, for the comfort of the human. Humanoids with fake skin and perfect proportions, animals with fur and genetically coded colors only. _This_ cat was very hairless. And colored green.

"What the hell," had been Zero's reaction to X's mildly late arrival to the rendezvous point. "You did **not** just pick up a potential carcass with shining hopes of saving it."

X glared; Zero glared right back.

"Just start up the engine, Zero. It's coming back with us."

Zero snorted in disgust, simultaneously turning on the ignition. "Don't expect me to take responsibility then. Get in."


	6. A Little Bit of Happiness

**Title**: A Little Bit of Happiness  
**Characters**: Elecman+Metalman, Blues  
**Rating**: PG-13  
**Warnings**: Squint or blink; either you see a relationship between the two or something platonic (the rating's for language). Probably platonic, I'd say. I was never that good. This was originally written for NK.

-8-8-8-8-8-

The rain poured a meter from their feet. In the alcove of the cement ruin, the waft of high-concentration oil permeated-- and overall, dominated-- the distinct smell of the storm, and the floor was soaked from water-sliding-off-metal, and the fluids seeping from one of the two bodies in their shelter.

"Stop messin' with it..."

Elecman's hands were swatted away for the second time since they found respite. Metalman had no patience for the nitpicking; his wounds weren't about to get any worse. Apparently, Elec didn't care about this.

In return, Elec scowled lightly and fell back into his crouch. His cowl had already been shoved back; Metal was sure his hair-- a pale, icy neon-blue-- stood out in the vague shadow and storm-veiled foliage. "I just want to see! Those weren't your average-powered plasma blasts, if you hadn't noticed."

"No shit. Sit."

The elder didn't get much of an objection, as he was pulled down beside Metal, holding Elec in place with an arm around his shoulders. Lightning flashed. Elec exhaled, glaring mildly; Metal rolled his eyes. "The auto-repair is already kicking in. Once it's done, you can hen-peck all you want."

"Thanks," Elec muttered sarcastically. Defeated for the moment, he pillowed his head on Metal's shoulder-armor and turned his frustrated gaze to the outside. The thunder rolled over the treetops in the silence that followed. They listened, for the footsteps that could've tracked them down in their haste, for the hum of a charged shot with their serial numbers on it. For the purr of a voice that could try calling them out, as if it were a deranged game of hide-and-seek.

Minutes uncurled from the watch, passing on half the hour. Without so much as shifting a leg, they remained still as statues. Wily's creation was out there somewhere. Picking off its predecessors with a sickly ease.

After too long, Metal murmured, "How you feeling?"

Elec frowned, giving the question some thought. "...I feel like I've been shot at and missed and shit at and hit."

Metal managed a weary grin. "Sounds like something I'd say." Pause. "Think we're in the clear?"

"Who knows," Elec replied sullenly. "Then again, there're 70 other targets to pick off. Maybe less now."

A deer and its fawn rushed past, running toward the way they'd come from. Metalman jumped at the movement-- Elec started in response-- and scowled. "That's it." With a grunt, he braced himself against the wall and began pushing himself up. "We're going to Light's. Now."

In a turn of the tables, Elec pulled Metal back down before he got too far. "Sit! Christ, just stay! We'll go when your system seals."

"And by then," Metal growled, "we might be the last left on that monster's hit-list. Waiting isn't my game."

Elec glared. "If you want to go now, let me look you over. It's either that, or I hold you here."

It became a contest of wills that Metal conceded to. They would wait, then make the long dash to Dr. Light's compound. They had to be told. Wily was slaughtered and the Robot Masters' weapons were useless; even the more powerful ones did as much damage as a bug bite. Light would know what to do.

That's what they prayed for, anyway.

The rain slowed. The lightning all but stopped. The thunder grew quieter with every shout. The lessened noise made it easier to hear the rest of the woods. And the shifting of leaves under feet and across movement became quite clear. Too big for a game mammal, two subtle for a bulky predator. No chuffing.

Whatever it was, it wasn't alive. It moved, of course, but it wasn't an animal. Not of the woodland kind, in any case.

They couldn't move from their close proximity, without making metallic scraping noises, and Metal's good arm wasn't in any position to fling one of his blades properly. He pursed his lips together hard, as Elec held close his unhindered hand, letting the electricity slowly jump to his two, pointing fingertips. If this was it, they'd have to make their last stand on the fly. They wouldn't go down without scarring it, at the very least.

The red and pale colors they dread marched right into their sights, and not a moment sooner was Thunder Beam flying from both Elec's mouth and his hand. What they didn't expect was even faster reflexes, as the attack bounced off a solid surface, unbruised.

Never had they been more relieved to see that grey shield in all their lives.

Every stoic Blues frowned at the pair, and while Elecman breathed rapidly to calm his pounding pulse, Metalman brought out the words Elec could never say. "Are you trying to get killed!"

Blues 'tch'ed softly. "No time. Out."

- c - u - t -

"They're still a few left unaccounted," Blues stated, dialing in coordinates to Metal's teleporter like he'd done it many times over in the short space of a clock's judgment. "And when I say stay there, I mean /stay there/."

"Yeah yeah." Metal vanished immediately.

Elec hadn't stopped recalling every sentence said on their way to open space. A little under one-third of the Masters' were in some sort of stable condition, and s handful had been diagnosed as critical. Some of the survivors' lights had already passed on. It didn't sit well with him.

"Elecman."

"Uhn?--oh. Yeah?"

Blues' hand hovered over the execute button. "I'm not sending you where I sent everyone else. You're going to the doctor."

Elec blinked, bewildered at such a trip. "But why?"

"If he hasn't already learned about it, Light will need to know about Zero. I also want you to make sure Rock doesn't leave the building, much less the property. ...I told Rock once, if there was ever a Master I trusted to speak truthfully, it was you."

"..." That unsettled Elec even more, but he forced a pale smile. "What would happen if I wasn't around to be your messenger?"

Blues mirrored the expression. "People would die because of lost time. Just relax and don't worry. You and Metalman aren't dead. Revel in the fact you didn't lose him, or the other way around. Now go."

Elec was gone in a flash.


	7. Bless me Brother for I have Sinned

**Title**: Bless me, Brother, for I have Sinned...  
**Characters**: Blues, Wily  
**Rating**: PG-13  
**Warnings**: Just for language and death. Nothing you haven't heard before. 

-8-8-8-8-8-

_Forced to his knees, bound by chains, weighed down with unshakable anchors. Battered, torn, heavens never broken in spirit. Watched from all sides, aimed for at all angles. No escape, no future foreseen, no chance to say goodbye. No chance to amend for his creation. _

It would end here. On his knees and made to face his killer with thoughtless eyes. There would be no fear, no hate, no joy of death. Just the sense of rejected defeat, for he was defeated, and boasted existence-less pride.

He would be himself, entering oblivion, that he molded over his fashionably short lifespan. Nothing but infuriating best of show.

"Will you finally submit to your master, you traitorous thing?"

"The concept of 'master' is a figment of your delusions. I have one, but that creature is not present in this room."

The cold, conical point of a weapon pressed firmly into his forehead, and no flicker of emotion passed over him. The gun was unimpressive and could not frighten him. He accepted it. "If it wasn't for you, I believe all this might not be possible. So I'll allow you a few last words before your execution."

He smiled, cruelly amused. "I forgive you, Wily, for the pain that you've caused, and I can only pray Rock will find it in him to kill you, you fucking son of a b--"

So came the dark, as the concentrated laserbeam pierced vital moderators. The last bit of audio captured, before an entire systems meltdown: "I /did/ only say a few."


	8. Mixed Nationalities

**Title**: Mixing Nationalities  
**Characters**: Blues, Kalinka (Cossack, Rock, Roll)  
**Rating**: G  
**Notes**: My inner sap speaks. It's going back in its cage when I'm done. Written late for Valentine's and early for White Day (and Men's Day too, I suppose). I've effectively done my quota for all three, even though I don't celebrate two of them. Drabble-ish.

-8-8-8-8-8-

He had gone to visit her late February. She was fourteen, and already looked different from her more innocent ages all the visits before. Humans grew, and she was a perfect example of their mortality, unlike all the elder scientists he had the unfortunate pleasure of knowing personally.

The visit was short; he was passing through on his way to Saint Petersburg, and Cossack and his daughter had invited him in for the night...mostly on Kalinka's insistence, but Cossack wasn't without his own insistence either.

He wanted to be gone by sunrise, for insurance of safety on their part, but Kalinka had made sure he didn't go away without burdening his already light load with something no bigger than the palm of his hand.

It was a small wooden bear with, what he believed to be, a fish caught in its mouth and a small, painted heart-shape against its left leg. _"I carved it myself."_ Because he assumed she still was forbidden to work on machines until a proper age, and busied herself else how.

_"I'd thought to make it a Valentine's gift, but...ahh, since today's the twenty-third!, I thought you... Well, today's Men's Day. And I don't care what you are, you deserve our thanks more than any veteran does!"_

She had never sent him anything for either holiday before. He didn't _quite_ understand the sentiment, but...

Today was March 13th, and Blues burst into Light's home with two grocery bags in arm. He stormed past a bewildered Rock and told a startled Roll, "Out," as he dropped those bags on the counter.

"But," she protested feebly, trying to process his abrupt cameo, her hands still in the soapy water, "my dishes--"

"I'll do them for you," he persisted with sharp annoyance. "Now out."

Both siblings were then efficiently shut outside the kitchen.

Because he really didn't want them seeing what he was doing. It was just too...embarrassing. Though he would leave a platter of whatever concoctions he managed to make properly, as an indirect apology for his rudeness.

...And maybe because he did care. Just an ounce. Not enough for words, he supposed, but plenty enough for cookies.


End file.
